Marla the Blogger

My family and I just got back from a much needed vacation. We hadn't taken a trip together since last year and it was great to get away. Like everyone else these days, we didn't have a lot of money to spend but still had a great time without breaking the bank. It helped a lot that my in-laws rent a house near the beach every year, so we had a free place to stay, but there are other ways to help travel on a budget:

• Pack your own food - on long car trips, we take healthy snacks like grapes and pretzels and pack a lunch, so we're only eating out for dinner. It saves money and is better for us!
• Travel off-peak times - my in-laws get a good deal on the house they rent because they get it earlier in the season. Sometimes the weather isn't as warm, but we usually have at least a few good days while we're there.
• Share costs - my husband's siblings and their spouses were with us as well, and each couple took a turn buying groceries and cooking dinner one night, so we only went out for dinner once.
• Keep entertainment costs down - you don't have to spend a lot of money on expensive attractions. The best time our son had all week was running on the beach and building sand castles. In the evenings, we had a great time playing cards and board games with my husband's family.

For us, the best part of a vacation is spending time together as a family, away from work and school and our day-to-day routine. And it was great to come back and not have a bunch of debt hanging over our heads from an expensive vacation. We're already planning another budget trip: camping this summer!

Have you ever heard the financial advice "pay yourself first" before? My husband is always fond of saying it when we're talking about our finances. The idea is that before you pay any of your monthly bills or spend money on daily expenses, you need to put some money aside for yourself first. I did an okay job with my personal finances on my own, but I hadn't been good about saving money. When my husband and I merged our money and our debts, he insisted that we set up a money market account that we automatically pay into from our checking account each month. The amount we pay has changed based on our overall finances; when things have been tight, we've lowered the amount some and when we've been doing well, we've upped the amount. No matter what we've had going on, though, we've always paid something into it every month.

I know it's hard to look at your monthly finances and figure out where to find "extra" money. So many bills like rent, childcare, car payments and insurance are very specific amounts with no way to decrease them. You won't get a few dollars off your car insurance bill next month just because you didn't drive your car as much this month. However, there are some areas, like groceries and gas, where what you do can have an impact on the money you spend. Here are a few things I do to try to shave off a few dollars wherever I can:

• Shop with a list - before you go grocery shopping, make a list of what you need and stick to it. When you're in the store, skip the aisles that don't have anything on your list in them. Avoiding impulse buys at the grocery store and buying only what you really need saves you money.
• Drive less - try to combine errands instead of making lots of individual trips. I try do so some quick errands (like dropping off a movie or picking up dry cleaning) on my way home from work. If I run a bunch of errands at once, I plan out the order to do them in to coincide with the most efficient driving route with the least amount of mileage and doubling back. It saves money on gas and wear and tear on the car. 
• Postpone big purchases - we've needed a second car since we moved back to Ohio in November, but we decided to put it off for a few months until our finances stabilized after our move. My husband has been taking the bus into work in the morning (he gets a free bus pass through his work) and I pick him up on my way home after getting our son from daycare.

Because we try to find ways to save a little money each month and have always "paid ourselves first," my husband and I have enough money that we can buy a used car and pay cash. This will enable us to get the second car we need without having to add another monthly bill, and allow us to get a good deal on the car because we're only paying for the car, not the car plus years of interest payments. And with the current state of the credit market, we're glad we don't have to try to get a loan right now.

I know when money is tight it's not easy to put some aside. There have been several months where I tried to convince my husband we just couldn't afford to put some money away. But I'm glad we've always found a way to put something into savings each month, even if it didn't seem like much at the time. In the long run, even small amounts add up to something that can make a big difference. 

Like a lot of other people this year, I'm having to rethink the way I give gifts this holiday season. With our recent move and my husband changing jobs, along with some upcoming big purchases we have to make, money is tighter than usual this year. We're not able to spend as much on gifts and charitable donations as we'd like to. However, the important aspect of gift giving is to show other people how much you appreciate them, and help those who are less fortunate, and that can still be accomplished without spending a ton of money:

• Give the gift of time - As a working mom, there is nothing that I would like more than for someone to offer me an evening of free babysitting or to come over and help me finish unpacking and organizing for a few hours. If a close friend or family offered me something like that as a gift this year, I would love it.
• Give fewer gifts - a few years ago my husband's family finally decided to simplify the holidays by exchanging names instead of everyone buying gifts for everyone else. It's so much less stressful from both a financial and time stanpoint to only have to buy for one person instead of eight. We all get together to exchange our gifts and enjoy spending the day together even if there isn't a huge pile of gifts under the tree.
• Skip the gifts - if you're finding yourself short on cash this year, odds are many of your friends and family are in the same situation. Why not suggest that you don't exchange gifts this year? Instead of buying a gift for a friend, why not make plans to meet for coffee instead? With as busy as we all are these days, a few hours to catch up with a good friend in person would mean more to me then getting a present.

One thing we usually do this time of year that I'm really missing is making a charitable donation of some kind. I felt like the very little amount I could give this year wouldn't make much of a difference. But then some of my coworkers came up with a great idea. They collected canned goods and cash donations at work to give to a local food bank. A few cans from my pantry and the small amount of cash I could give didn't seem like much, but when I went to drop them off at work, there were boxes and boxes of food and the cash jar was half full. Even though each of us only had a little to give, combined it ended up to be quite a sizable donation. 

Like lots of other things in life, I think the focus this holiday season needs to be on what's most important. And I think showing people that you care is what's most important, not how much money you spend on gifts. We all like to buy nice things for our loved ones and make donations to a good cause. But there are still ways to help out and show your appreciation for others without spending a lot of money.